Facebook predator blackmailing local girls for nude photos

The McMinnville Police Department is searching for an unidentified person accused of attempting to blackmail local girls into providing nude photos of themselves.

Over the course of the last month, a local girl was “friended” on Facebook by someone who convinced her to send nude pictures. That person is now blackmailing her and and at least one other girl in an effort to obtain more nude photos.

On Thursday, McMinnville police learned another local girl, a friend of the original victim, had been contacted on Facebook by the suspect. The suspect threatened to share her friend’s nude photos globally unless she shared nude photos of herself.

The police are asking any families aware of such blackmail attempts to report them immediately. “If it is recent, and the information is still available, leave the data as is and let our investigators obtain information from the contact before deleting or otherwise changing the account,” they urged in a Friday press release.

Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to call Detective Sergeant Scott Fessler at 503-435-5616.

Police reminded parents to take a proactive role in making sure that their children are safe from Internet predators and inappropriate Internet threats of a sexting or cyber-bullying nature. They offered a list of guidelines to help parents educate and protect their children from threats on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, and Twitter:

- Check your child's friend lists to see who has access to his or her profile. Make sure your child knows all of those "friends" in person.

- Teach your child to set profiles to private, but be aware that privacy settings do not guarantee complete privacy.

- Have your child remove any inappropriate photos or comments and delete any personal information.

- Check the profiles of your child's friends to see if they feature revealing information or photos about your child.

- Report inappropriate or criminal behavior to the appropriate authority. Most sites have a reporting mechanism for non-criminal behavior, but criminal behavior should be reported through law-enforcement agencies or the CyberTipline at www.cybertipline.com.